Exploring the World After 60: Travel Tips & Must-See Destinations

In this episode of The Big 6-Oh!, we’re joined by freelance travel writer and editor Helen Hayes, who brings decades of travel experience and tips tailored for the over-60s traveller. 

Helen shares how travel can still be an exciting and accessible adventure, regardless of age. 

And for those worried about the logistics — insurance, fitness, or going solo there's  practical advice, from the importance of booking the right travel insurance to sharing stories of solo-friendly tours that connect you with like-minded travellers. 

Whether you're dreaming of a European e-bike tour, walking Japan’s ancient temples, or embarking on a safari in Africa, Helen's tips will ensure you're ready to make the most of your golden years by travelling in style, comfort, and safety.

* This episode of The Big 6-Oh! is proudly sponsored by www.louiscarr.com.au - helping people in the Hills District find their dream home since 1992.

Transcript

00:00
If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rawlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:36
Hey Kayleigh. Hey Guy, how are you? Welcome back to the podcast. Yeah, thanks, you too. Hey, I was talking to some friends the other day and we're talking about holidays and you know the things that we used to do as kids and what sort of holidays we took as a family. Were you more that beach bum sort of gal or were you sort of the family road tripper sort of person? We would go, because I'm originally from Queensland so and a lot of family up that way so every year at Christmas time Dad would pile us into the Kingswood and drive us up.

01:05
to Queensland, inevitably the car would overheat going over Bulla Deela and we'd have to stop there for a while. But then eventually we'd get there, we would spend our holiday, Christmas holidays at the Gold Coast, you know, in the, in the seventies when it was very different to how it is now. And you'd go off to SeaWorld and you'd spend days and days at the beach. And that was pretty much my family holidays up until I left home. Oh, so similar. It would be, Dad would spend days washing and cleaning the car and then

01:35
Boxing day morning, it would be like four o'clock in the morning and in, we'd get into the back of the- The worst day to be on the road. Oh no. And then we'd stop at Taree and mum would have packed something for us. And by the time we got to the Buller dealer, Ben's, for anyone that knows those, you'd be winding up through those. But like you, it was the Gold Coast. That's where we used to spend our summer holidays and we'd be up there for a week or two weeks. And then home we'd try again.

02:05
Same thing would happen the next year. Nothing changed a whole lot. Did you, in your late teens, early twenties, did you do the pilgrimage to London? No, I didn't, but I take it that you probably did. No, I didn't. Oh, wow. Did you? I was a career girl, and I would go on holidays for maybe a month or something, but I'd never ever did that big, you know, 12 months off where you go and backpack around Europe. But I don't know if I regret not doing that now. No, is that a modern day thing? I mean, do you remember your first

02:34
big holiday after school. Like did you ever do like a Contiki tour or something like that? No I didn't. I had I've got cousins in the US so I went over there a couple of times to see my family over there. Went to London to meet up with some friends who were over there but as I said it was only for like three or four weeks. But now like at our age now I'm starting to and I don't know whether this is a thing and I'm going to ask our special guest in a moment that all of a sudden hit 60 and I want to start ticking off bucket list items on on my travel.

03:04
tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Kids are going off your hands. You can get a little bit of money for yourself and go on and do those things. All those experiences and those bucket list items, whether it's Europe or the Americas or the Seychelles or whatever it is, yeah, it's time to do it. If you can afford it, if you've got the time. And yeah, I think our next guest will probably give us a bit of insight into how we go about it, what we can do and where we can go.

03:30
Let's bring her in. It's Helen Hayes. He's a freelance travel writer and editor. Helen, welcome. It's so nice to be here with you both. Thank you, Guy and Kayleigh for having me. That's all right. Thank you for your time. Now, we want to ask you a few things about, we were just talking about traveling in your early twenties, totally different to traveling when you're 60 or even 70. What sorts of things do we need to consider? Well, when you were talking about your family road trips, that took me right back.

03:57
to those trips, my dad would get the car serviced exactly like you said. I came from Bega and then we'd all pile into the car at 4am. I don't know what it was about 4am. But off we would go, no seat belts in the back, whatever. And we'd always go to Coffs Harbour. That was our Gold Coast. So we went to Coffs Harbour. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but there wasn't much planning for me because I just had to drag myself to the car.

04:26
But when I was young, I did do the trip to Europe, but none of my elder brothers had ever traveled overseas. So it was kind of like a big deal. And I didn't do a Contiki one, I did a Cosmos one, because I was worried about what was like going between countries. So I just figured I'd get someone else to do all that for me, you know? What you get on the bus and off you go and changing money and all that back then. So where did you go to? Well, I went all through Europe. I only went over for like three months.

04:55
But, you know, did that, it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium thing. You know, you're on the bus and one day you're in Innsbruck and then the next day you're in somewhere else. And, but it was my first, my first trip to Europe and it was fantastic. I ended up going and living in London for a year, which was fantastic. But these days when you travel, when, you know, cause I'm also in my sixties and.

05:20
I do think more about planning and I've met a lot of people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s traveling. I think the main thing is you just have to prepare for the sort of trip you want to do. But one thing that's for sure is that just because you're 60 or 70, you can do whatever you damn well please, really. I went to an 80th birthday party last year and I rang the lady up and I said, oh, what do you want me to bring for your party? She says, oh, excuse me panting. I've just been for a run.

05:48
I said, what? You went for a walk? She was still running. I'm like, for God's sake, you got to stop that rubbish. But she, she's out there. She's the so many active people who are in their sixties, seventies and eighties. And I don't know about you, but my dad, when he was the age I am now, he actually died when he was the age I am now, but I thought he was ancient. Yeah. What he was so old.

06:16
60s was like, wow, you know, I really are past it, but it's very different now. And if you are a little bit unsure or you've lost your partner, you're by yourself, you can actually take all the worry out of it by going on a tour. There's so many good tour companies out there and a lot of them are trending towards small group touring. So it's not quite so overwhelming. You're not on there with 60 people on the bus and you get stuck next to the same person every day.

06:43
you may not like. So there's so many good companies. I'm just a few off the top of my head would be Bunik, Backroads, Collette. And so you can just basically find the place that you want. Intrepid's another one and they are all kind of introducing that immersive travel where you're not just seeing the sites, you're actually maybe having dinner in someone's home. You know, you're meeting locals, you're being shown around by locals.

07:13
getting off the main roads and getting away from the main sites because that also helps with the over tourism thing right so it's it's a good way to do it um so yeah a lot of planning goes in if if you want to know the type of travel which is great for anybody especially people who may not be so sure of their fitness cruising is is just absolutely great for people of all ages and all abilities but

07:40
I don't know, but you can prepare yourself for holidays these days. You can like your, your Camino walk, Haley. I'm sure you did a lot of preparation. Did you? No. Um, no, I did. I know I lie. I did do a little bit of walking before, but, um, that's a good example. The Camino it's on a lot of people's bucket lists to go. And it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I had this idea that I was going to, which is going to be, I was really be struggling doing 20, 25, 30 Ks a day.

08:10
but you get fit as you go along. If that makes sense, your fitness improves as you're doing it and you just go at your own speed. And if you're having a bad day, just catch an Uber to the next stop. I don't think. Well, look, my husband did the Camino. He did the whole thing. That's huge. Like a thousand kilometers or something. And he'd never really liked hiking, but he's always telling me what you said. You get used to the walking and then your body is, we're built for walking. Yeah.

08:38
You just walk 25, 30, 40 kilometers a day, but the preparation he did, honestly, it drove me mad. Testing out socks, because you just don't want to get the blisters. You don't want to get shin splints. So, and you just send your backpack on. You don't want to worry about, you know, carrying it. Who wants to carry their gear? Not me. No, not me either. But yeah. And if you're going bike riding, of course you need to sort of do a little bit of that. But when you do plan, you have to make sure you plan your insurance, because you have to have travel insurance, do not leave the country without it.

09:08
sure. Well that was going to be the next question is with travel insurances because there's two ways I know some people think oh it's an absolute rort I'm not going to do it I've never used it and other people will wouldn't dream of going on holidays without it what's your thoughts? Oh no you have to get it you absolutely must get it if you let's say you're going to the United States and I know some shocking horror stories about things that have gone wrong

09:35
you know, somebody might have a car accident, not their fault, but they're in hospital, didn't have insurance, $350,000 later. And if they had have had insurance, it would have all been looked after. You just can't afford for these things to happen, particularly in the USA. It's so expensive, even just to go see a doctor or get a prescription. So when you do get your insurance, let's say you like skiing.

10:01
I know loads of people in their 60s, 70s, 80s even, who still ski. You have to make sure that's covered in your insurance policy. Or if you're only going to ski once a year, just get it extra to your policy. Unless you're doing multiple trips. But with my one, I get skiing and I get cruising because now you have to get separate cruise cover with your travel insurance. That's mainly if something happens, you get sick on the ship or you miss your flight or your bag gets lost, whatever.

10:31
you must have that insurance. And I think the trick is you must get it the day you book the trip. Cause that way if you change your mind, you're covered or, but you always have to read the small print, like they say, and check that your dietary, if you've got dieteries or terrible allergies, you have to make sure you're covered for that too. So there's lots of things you can think of, but insurance, yes, you must, must, must get it. And don't think just cause you're going to Greece or Thailand, everyone else rides little mopeds around, don't think you can.

11:00
unless you have a motorbike licence at home. Because if you fall off and you don't have a motorbike licence in Australia, you're cactus.

11:12
This episode of the Big Six-O brought to you by Louis Carr Real Estate, helping people in the Hills District find their dream home since 1992. Ready to buy, sell or rent? Check out louiscarr.com.au for all your property needs.

11:30
So you mentioned cruising, Helen. If you're a first time cruiser, what are the things that you need to take into consideration? Well, depends who you're going with. If you want it to be a lovely romantic cruise, or you want to take the kids, or you're going with a group of friends, like I've been, one of my friends wanted to do it for her 40th. So there was a group of, you know, a lot of her friends went on this cruise, which was great fun. So you have to look, are you gonna cruise around Australia, from Australia?

11:57
You're going to go have a season cruise. You join us cruise from Australia to New Zealand, for instance, or Australia to Japan, you can do all of that. And cruising is absolutely wonderful because you can do it. If you are really active, you know, like Kayleigh, I'm sure she wants to go and do things every day, maybe, or you just want to enjoy the ship, go, go on the tours and do the occasional activity. Yes. Give me a cocktail and just put me on the

12:26
on the lounge and I'll stay there for the whole cruise. Yeah, that's me. Well, that's the one. I mean, some of the bigger ships, there's a lot of ships now. Like I was just in Alaska recently and I was on a ship that only takes 930 people, but it felt like it was half empty, but it wasn't. There's just so many spots on the ship where you can relax and read and you feel like there's nobody else there. But then we would see other ships. And I asked one of the crew, I said, how many people are on that ship?

12:56
says 4500. It's like, see, that's that's a lot. It feels like a lot. And but you might be that person, you might want to go on that ship because it's got so many things for you to do. But there's two kinds of people though, there are people that love cruising and people who hate cruising. Yeah. So cruising is an option if you're really into it, I guess. But if you're not, if that's not your idea of a great holiday, what are some of the other places that

13:22
I guess 60 plus Aussies are going to these days, is it still Europe? Are more people going to Asia, Southeast Asia? Look, people are doing more of a type of holiday, I guess, like safaris. Let's look at safaris for instance. Everyone has that on their bucket list. Going to Africa, doing a safari. And it's not that physical. I mean, really all you have to be able to do is walk to the truck and climb up a couple of stairs and get in. So getting in and out of the safari vehicles is pretty much as.

13:50
busy as it gets and in between your dusk and dawn safaris, you line by the pool if you want to, which is it's a very beautiful thing to do and seeing lion and giraffe and zebra and everything in the wild never ever gets old. So again the type of safari you do depends. You want to maybe do it really rustic and do it in the tent in the middle of nowhere or you might want the luxury glamping tent and there are some magnificent ones of those.

14:19
Or you might want to do it in a lodge, which is just like a beautiful, you know, a building that's got walls, like without, without the canvas. So you can do all that. Or if you want to be really active, you can do bike riding safaris. You can do safaris on horseback even. And one time I went on one where it was a walking, we went walking just once. But I'll tell you what, nothing gets your senses going quite like walking through the African bush when your guide.

14:49
has a gun and every noise is like, what's that? What's that? Oh my gosh, what's that? Yeah, it certainly keeps you on the antenna hooks when you're out. But yeah, safaris is definitely a holiday type that you should look at. And you're mentioning Europe, but what people are doing, they're not just going to Europe. They're doing maybe an e-bike tour or a hiking tour like you did. Might be a small hike, might be a small bike.

15:18
But you can do day trips, you can do longer bike trips, and e-mikes have really made a big difference, you know? It means that you, if you were worried about not being able to get up that hill or keep up with somebody, you just have to put the, turn the battery on and off your trot. Yeah, I remember a few years ago, Helen, I did a trip to Canada. And one of the things that'll stay with me for a long, long time is that I did a three-day horse ride through the Rockies and we camped overnight, you know, and doing that whole thing. Are there any...

15:48
destinations or, or, or places that you've been to that just stand out in your mind as being, you know, things that people should really consider, whether they're traveling as a couple or with a group or by themselves. Oh, there's so many. I mean, that trip sounds fantastic guy. I would have loved to have done that myself, but there's nothing quite like waking up out in nature, like just being out in the wild and having no people, like I was just in field land not that long ago and

16:17
Fieldland in New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. And there's just no people. There's just no people. It looks exactly like it did thousands of years ago. It's gone to one land rainforest and pretty much the last remnant of it. So there's something quite primal about being somewhere and knowing there's just nobody, you're the only people there. It comes back to, I think what you were saying earlier about, particularly in our age bracket is understanding your own physical capabilities.

16:47
Do you want to be with a lot of people? Do you want to be with not very many people? You know, have you got a big budget? Have you got a small budget? How far away do you want to go? I think those sorts of questions, would you say are good to ask yourself is what would make a good holiday for you personally? Because that may not be the same for the next person. Well, that's exactly right. And if you, some people don't like traveling by themselves, but now there are travel groups, travel tour companies who actually are full.

17:15
of solo travelers. So they're solo, but they're with a group. So they're not going to be solo for long, if you know what I mean. And they've all got that same desire to travel with like minded people, which is a great way to do it. There are loads of women only companies now. If you just want to travel with women and not men, and they're popular. And I'm sure there's companies out there who do like men's travel trips, you know, they might be a bit more active or motorbike.

17:44
you know, trips or something like that. So yeah, there's so much you can do, but you know what it comes down to? Do something. Don't just stay at home and think you're too old. You're not too old. You can go and do whatever you like. You can go to Japan and you can do the Shinkansen's around. And there are some beautiful walks, we were talking about hiking before, where you walk from ancient temple to ancient temple and you stay in Ryokans, you know, the traditional houses.

18:13
and you're walking through this exquisite scenery. New Zealand's got great walks. We've got great walks here in Australia. Have you ever done any of the Australian hikes? I wanna do the overland in Tassie. That's one of my bucket lists. But going back to what you were saying before about immersive travel, the rise of that now is next level. There's a volunteer group, I guess, where specifically for people our age, if you wanna go and volunteer anywhere in the world,

18:40
you can, you say, what do I want to do? Where do I want to go? And you can volunteer to go and work in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand or, you know, with disadvantaged kids in Africa or whatever, those sorts of things. I agree with what you were saying in the beginning that people are now more after experiences more so than a holiday. I'm not the kind of person that could lie by the pool every day. Yes. You know, I want to do something. Oh, absolutely. You know, going and actually having an experience is going to stick in your memory.

19:09
way longer than laying by the pool. I mean, some people like those flop and drop holidays. And yes, they come in, you know, they're good if you've really been working hard and you need a rest. You don't want to do the get up, move to another place, look around, go to the hotel, move, look around again all day. That's tiring, you know, you need a holiday after your holiday then. But there's so many things in the world that you can get out there and

19:39
really inspire you to, I don't know, you might suddenly discover that you love a special, like an animal type, like you might see the orangutans in Borneo and think, wow, I'm really going to try and do something to help orangutans or gorillas in Uganda or something like that. That's my one of my bucket lists, seeing the gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda. Yeah, it's one of mine too. Yeah, it's just, don't be scared. Yeah. I would recommend if people are

20:09
wanting to travel, but are a little scared. Find a travel agent because travel, they're called advisors. They say travel advisor, because you know what? They know a lot more than you do. And they're going to look after you really well. You can say, look, I want this. I want to see that. I want to do a tour that stays more than one night in places. So I feel like I get to know it. I want to stay in the city. I want to stay in the country.

20:35
And that travel agent will do all that work for you. And if something goes wrong, they're going to fix it for you. And it's better than trying to muddle through and do it yourself. Cause unfortunately there's a lot of dodgy websites out there. People get stuck with getting the wrong visas, for instance. It's happened to me even, and I should have known better where you, you're paying for like an ESTA in the U S and it's a dodgy site and you, your money's just bye. So, you know, just get the travel agent to help you.

21:05
navigate all those things, but whatever you do, don't just stay home. You know, you've got life to live and get out there and see that world and meet people. Meeting people from other countries is just so exciting and exhilarating and going to places you've never ever been before. Waking up on on a mountainside in Switzerland or somewhere, it's just you wake up and your heart feels full just because you're there and that's a great thing to have happen, don't you think?

21:35
I know Australians are global nomads, aren't we? And if domestically we're looking to travel, are there any really great towns or, you know, things to do in Australia that might be, you know, something that we should probably consider as well? If we're not so adventurous to go and spend some time with the orangutans or have that immersive experience overseas, is that a gentle step to take? For sure. And you know what?

22:04
Embarrassingly, I've never been to the Kimberley and there's a company called AAT Kings, which have been around for a long time. And there's also companies called like APT and they do great tours around Australia. If you like food, you can do a foodie tour and or if you like some, you know, just traveling around and you want to go the outback, you can go on a tour out there. And the Kimberley ones are fantastic because it's a tough place to get to.

22:32
And unless you're a campervanter and you've driven there yourself, which you wouldn't really wanna do by yourself, go on one of these tours, see our own backyard, see the bungal bungal and cable beach with that magnificent sunset that you see and the camels, you know, walking across the sunset. And Tasmania, I mean, there's so much to see in Tasmania. I really need to get back there and see some things. Queensland, I've always wanted to go to Cape York.

23:01
There's a lot to do in our country. Guy, what's on your bucket list for Australia? Well, you've given me a smorgasbord now, which probably doesn't help a whole lot, because now I've got a menu with too many items on it. So Kayleigh's probably the same as me. So if you had to pick, say, three top destinations for 60 and over, can be anywhere domestically or overseas, what would you be looking at? Well, that's really tough. It depends on...

23:30
what the person's likes are, but I really like the US and Canada just because they're easy. There's no language barrier. Everyone should go to New York. Everyone should go to New York. New York is the most vibrant city in the world. You can just people watch, just stand there and you'll be having a good time. It's like your mouth will be hanging open because the whole world lives there. And it's so exciting. And you've got Broadway and you've got the Hudson River and you've got Lady Liberty and there's

24:00
Just so much to see and do in New York. Paris, of course, we're talking big cities first, of course. London, I'd love to get back to London. It's changed a lot since I lived in a grotty apartment in Brixton. And in Australia, I would really like to see probably Ningaloo around Exmouth Coral Coast area of Western Australia. I've just done, I haven't done enough of Western Australia. So, and Australians are wanting to see more.

24:27
of Western Australia. We did a lot in COVID. We really had no choice. We all got off our backsides and saw more of our country, but there's still a lot to go. And a lot of people haven't seen Uluru and really you've got to see Uluru. Yeah, that's on the list. It's not just a red rock. There's something really spiritual about it when you get out there and they've worked really hard. The Indigenous experiences out there are fantastic. And you're

24:56
you really feel immersed in the culture out there. And there's some incredible, like a brand new drone show that they started, Winjiri Wiru, I think it's called. There's just so many things that help you understand the culture out there. And we all need to understand that. It's such an ancient culture in the Red Center. So definitely Uluru and all other destinations. Well, see, I love snow. And I think there's something special about mountains.

25:24
And just being in the mountains, in a mountain town, is something special to me. Even if you can't ski, you can walk in snow. You can put some snowshoes on. You can put some cross-country skis on. Doesn't matter if you can't ski. It's just so beautiful and fresh. The air is just so crisp. And just looking at that mountain scenery just makes me happy. I really like being in the mountains for sure. Switzerland, France, the US, Canada, Japan.

25:54
Even South America's got some incredible mountains. It's something majestic about it and magnetic for sure. Well, what we can take away from this is what you said earlier, number one tip, just do something. Get out there and do something. There is plenty of support and plenty of solo travel companies that will welcome you with open arms. Go and explore. If you can't afford to go overseas, that's fine. Go and explore our own country. Even your own state is great to explore as well.

26:22
Helen, thank you. Well, thank you so much. I could have kept talking for ages. No, that's all right. No, it's great to have you on. I'm off to Woi Woi right now. Thanks so much, Helen. It's so nice talking to you both. Thank you very much. Bye bye.

26:41
The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal and reflect those of the hosts and guests. They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations or companies. This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters. Ah, and before we go, let's give credit where credit is due. Kayleigh Harris and I came up with all the genius content.

27:10
this week's episode. Our producer, Nickabood, well he keeps the lights on and make sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. So thanks for keeping us on track Nick. Nick? Nick?